NIZAMABAD: The Endowments department is planning to lease out temple lands through open auctions in the coming days to increase revenue from temple properties.
The historic Bada Ram Mandir in Nizamabad owns properties at several locations across Nizamabad and Adilabad districts in the state as well as Nanded in neighbouring Maharashtra. The temple has about 400 acres of agricultural land in different villages and around 100 acres of non-agricultural land spread across various locations.
Over the past two years, Endowments department officials have undertaken a special exercise to identify temple properties, verify agreements with tenant farmers and revise lease rents. Officials found that the lease amounts collected in the past were nominal and did not reflect the actual value of the lands.
Following directions from the high court, officials recently conducted an open auction for leasing temple land in Kanjara village. The auction covered about 14 acres and three guntas spread across different survey numbers. One of the participants secured the lease for two years by offering Rs 17.50 lakh, which officials said was among the highest rent amounts received so far for the land.
Encouraged by the increase in revenue through the auction process, the department officials are considering conducting similar open auctions for other temple lands in the future.
In Nizamabad town, the temple owns around 40 acres of land on Radio Station Road. Of this, 10 acres has earlier been leased out to a private individual at a nominal rent. The remaining 30 acres are under consideration for allotment to TGSRTC for the establishment of an electric vehicle bus depot. However, Endowments officials have proposed that the land be leased to TGSRTC at prevailing market rates. Discussions are currently underway.
Meanwhile, some political party supporters have strongly opposed the proposal to lease temple lands through open auctions. They argue that existing leaseholders should be allowed to continue, provided they pay lease rents in line with market rates.
Bada Ram Mandir Executive Officer (EO) G Venu said another open auction would be conducted on Sunday for temple land at Tanakalan in Yedapally mandal. He said wide publicity would be given in the village ahead of the auction.
